Wedding Anniversary
We celebrated our 28th Wedding Anniversary this June! We thank the Lord for His grace, mercy, and healing power of the Holy Spirit, for keeping us rooted and grounded in His love. We are grateful for the presence of Christ that has sustained us over the years! We were able to get up to Yosemite National Park, as things opened up a bit, and celebrate the Lord’s goodness over the years. The Bible illustrates how it is important to celebrate and remember all of God’s blessings!
We have been doing quite a bit of ministry activity (online and in other ways) during what is one of the most unusual years so far in recent memory with COVID19 and civil unrest.
It was recently Pentecost Sunday. Some years it passes by with nobody even mentioning it. However, with all the upheaval in recent times, many people in the Body of Christ were actually praying for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we joined in online, and otherwise, with a number of those meetings and are encouraged to see fresh hunger in the Body of Christ for the power of the Holy Spirit! Praise God!
Billy Graham said in one of his last major conferences on evangelism: “We need to get back to the Book of Acts and I mean specifically Acts Chapter 2 and the power of the Holy Spirit.” He went on to say that this is the only way we can have hope of reaching this generation. As one of the most renowned preachers in American history, Billy Graham in his writings makes the point that reliance on the Holy Spirit is completely biblical and central to the Christian faith, and in fact epitomizes the goal of the Christian life.
Online Outpouring
Amongst recent meeting we’ve done, online and otherwise, one of the recent highlights for us was doing an online meeting with some friends up along the Central Coast of California. We had a blessed time of renewal and refreshing as the Holy Spirit poured down on us all in power when we moved into a prayer time. It was awesome to experience the Holy Spirit moving on all who joined in, releasing words and prophecies, and insights, from different people in attendance. The “priesthood of all believers” was evident and in action.
There were actually a number of younger people in attendance who were powerfully touched and ministered to as we prayed over them. We are doing our part to reach into, and empower and equip, the next generation! Praise God that the Lord’s power is not limited, or reduced, by doing things online through still-developing Zoom technology. We have also experienced people being filled, empowered, and encouraged in other online meetings we’ve done!
Divine Appointments
As things have opened up a little more, we’ve had some divine appointments, in person and otherwise.
I had one recently with a brand-new Christian I met. He was seeking direction for his life and I was able to share with him, and then pray over him about how the Holy Spirit will help lead us towards the Heavenly Father’s purposes for our life in Jesus’ Name. He was touched by the Lord and very thankful, hallelujah!
I also talked, shared and prayed with a man I met from Syria who had been through many hard times. He had come to Christ after being a Physics professor and experiencing great loss, including the death of his wife at the hands of Communist forces who kidnapped and killed her. He said he found God in the midst of his struggles, which he stated is the most important thing, and shared how much he appreciated being in America now! He was blessed that I took the time to listen to his story and then pray for him.
We also received a call from Canada from a brother in Christ who shared how a word we’d given him on our last trip there had deeply ministered to him and how the Lord had brought it now to fulfillment! Praise God!
More Online Activity
We were doing podcasts way before they became a popular thing and in fact have a plethora of podcasts episodes available online that cover different teachings from books of the New Testament as well as events in Christian History. We have begun to put some programs on SoundCloud as well, which offers fairly easy access. Our latest uploads to SoundCloud include the “Azusa Street Pentecostal Outpouring” and “Charles Finney’s Conversion and Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” You can access all our SoundCloud episodes here: soundcloud.com/graceworldmission and our more complete list on our Grace Alone program on iTunes/Apple Podcasts.
Another of our recent online pieces was about the Mother’s Day Outpouring in Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda, later renamed The Anaheim Vineyard, and my own subsequent baptism in the Holy Spirit there back in the day.
We in fact received some blessed responses from people, including a touching response from a reader who wrote to tell us how impacted she was by the article. She shared how blessed she was by the fire and power and anointing of the Holy Spirit that touched her while reading the article, as well as when we ministered at some meetings in her area up in Northern California previously. If you want to read that recent article you can do so by following this link: http://gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com/2020/05/40th-anniversary-of-mothers-day.html
It is important to remember that both the Pentecostal/Azusa Street Revival, as well as the Jesus People Revival, were preceded by civil unrest and national distress. Things got shaken up before those outpourings took place.
We are stoked on the way the Holy Spirit has continually moved in meetings we’ve done whether in person or online.
Let us all pray together that the larger Body of Christ will have a fresh widespread outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our time as well!
Thank you for your prayers and support! We really appreciate it!
God bless!
Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux
